


Too Long (But the Wait is Almost Over Remix)

by EachPeachPearPlum



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Hopeful Ending, Immortal Merlin, Medication, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 15:20:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6663967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EachPeachPearPlum/pseuds/EachPeachPearPlum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not the first time he's seen Merlin since he woke up (that's the phrase Arthur's going to go with, because he's still not entirely comfortable with the whole ‘mythical king reborn in the 21st century as an accountant’ thing), but it's definitely the closest he's got to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Long (But the Wait is Almost Over Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Clea2011](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Too Long](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3807373) by [Clea2011](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/pseuds/Clea2011). 



> So you would not believe how happy I was when the mods gave me your name, Clea, because ohmyGod your fics are amazing. The Leon Knightley series, The Frog Prince, way too many others for me to list them all. Then, of course, the pressure hit, and I ended up spending so much time reading and rereading everything, trying to find something I could do justice to.
> 
> I managed to narrow my selection down to two, and it's just that this is the only one that's finished. If you're okay with it, I'd love to post a much longer and much angstier remix sometime later in the year, but for now, I hope you are happy with this.
> 
> Thanks to Y1 for the beta and Y2 for the constant cheerleading. The two of you make my life a million times better than it would be otherwise.

It's not the first time he's seen Merlin since he woke up (that's the phrase Arthur's going to go with, because he's still not entirely comfortable with the whole ‘mythical king reborn in the 21st century as an accountant’ thing), but it's definitely the closest he's got to him.

The first time, when he thought he glimpsed someone with Merlin’s build waiting at a bus stop he drove past, Arthur slammed his foot down on the brake hard enough to give himself whiplash, the car behind him only narrowly avoiding a collision. Merlin was gone by the time Arthur had climbed out of the car and legged it back down the road, and Arthur told himself he'd imagined it, that just because he was back it didn't mean anyone else was.

But then he saw him again.

In the supermarket, Merlin paying for a tiny pile of groceries, out of the doors before Arthur could abandon his own food shopping and push through a queue after him. Merlin walking into the pharmacy, when Arthur was running too late for a meeting to duck in there after him. Standing by a bench on the other side of the street, one foot up on the seat as he tied his shoelace. Merlin, everywhere Arthur goes.

He’s seen him plenty of times, or thought he has, at least, but he doesn't think Merlin's ever noticed him in return.

Today, though, as he steps out into the beer garden of his sister’s favourite pub and finds himself staring at the face he'd recognise anywhere, Merlin stares back.

He looks just the same, and yet terribly, horribly different. His build, the unchanged youthfulness of his face, the dishevelled mess of his hair, and his ears, those ridiculous ears… Merlin could have walked straight out of Arthur's memory and sat down at a table in the sun, but for the weight on his shoulders, a millennia and a half of it, and the hollowness in his eyes.

It's his Merlin, the man Arthur grew up with, the man he would have grown old alongside, a man who has grown so, so old in Arthur's absence. It's his Merlin, and it's clear from his face that he has forgotten Arthur.

Merlin nods, the kind of vague, meaningless greeting Arthur would offer to a total stranger. Merlin nods, gives Arthur this confused frown, like maybe there's something there, some memory he's either trying to find or fighting hard to brush aside. Then he looks down, hands shaking as he pulls a bottle from his pocket. He tips a single tablet into his palm and then straight to his mouth, swallowing it dry.

_ Merlin _ , Arthur thinks, taking a step closer, ready to reintroduce himself, because maybe Merlin doesn't really know him now, but he will. Arthur will say hello, hold his hand out for Merlin to shake and not let go until Merlin remembers him, them, everything they saw and did and were.

He takes a second step, a third, fourth, fifth, and he's so close now, near enough that he'd no longer have to shout for Merlin to hear him, but before Arthur can open his mouth, Merlin stands, smiles that vague, not-Merlin smile, and walks away.

Arthur's still standing there, staring at the space where Merlin was, when his sister emerges from the pub, stepping from the shadows into the sunlit garden like she owns the whole world, still Morgana and yet not really. Like Merlin, she doesn't remember, but unlike Merlin, she’s only lived not quite three decades. She's still young, still human, Morgana without the hatred and the anger and the black hole of hopeless despair that drove her to madness. Morgana as she should have been.

“Arthur?” she says quietly, and Arthur still hears the lilting accent she had before, in their first lifetime. That's gone too, and for such a long time Arthur thought this was all lunacy, a project of his vivid, insane imagination, was preparing himself to confess his craziness and get help when he first saw Merlin again. “Are you okay?”

“Not yet,” Arthur answers, smiling as his sister gives him her patented  _ I’ll indulge you, even if you are a lunatic  _ look. “I will be, though.”

Merlin's here, he's real, and Arthur won't stop trying until that tiny spark of recognition blazes as bright as the two of them once did.


End file.
